Photo: Martin Ollman.
WHEN managing director of the National Folk Festival, Helen Roben, catches up to brief the incoming director, Katie Noonan, she’ll have good news to report.
For “Good Folk”, the two-day concert series or “folk experience” held in Queanbeyan over Easter, achieved the joint purposes of entertaining a lot of people and signalling that the National Folk Festival is alive, well and not going away any time soon.
To be sure, there were a few grumbles from purists missing the experience at Exhibition Park in what was a scaled down event of 22 concerts, who asked why it couldn’t have been held in Canberra.
In this sponsored post, “CityNews” speaks with experts in the Queanbeyan region who are passionate about what they do.
QUEANBEYAN, which started as a squattage, held by ex-convict and inn keeper Timothy Beard, pre-1838, is now one of the fastest growing inland cities in NSW, according to the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council.
It became a township in 1838 when there were about 50 people in the town, and more recently has grown to a population of almost 60,000, according to the 2016 Census.
Its name is the anglicised form of “quinbean” – an Aboriginal word meaning “clear waters”.
Queanbeyan’s economy is based on light construction, manufacturing, retail and agriculture but this continues to grow, with a variety of other businesses settling in the region such as arts organisations.
Chloe and Jason Roweth perform songs and poems by Henry Lawson at “Good Folk”.
THE National Folk Festival and Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council are hosting âGood Folkâ, with 22 concerts at three different venues over Easter. All concerts will be ticketed with covid-safe restrictions in place. The artists will perform at The Q, the Royal Hotel and the Queanbeyan Bicentennial Hall. There’s also a free two-day session at Campbell & George. Good Folk, April 3-4, book here.Â
The Queanbeyan Hive.
QUEANBEYAN Hive is launching fringe folk festivities for Easter with Bec Taylor and the Lyrebirds, multi-instrumentalist Bec’s alt folk-pop project, supported by Lucy Ridge and the Derby Widows. 274 Crawford St, Queanbeyan, 6-9pm, Friday, April 2. Book here.
AN ill-judged April Foolâs email has sent shock waves around the local musical theatre community.
An email sent to 60 members of a Canberra theatrical interest group earlier this morning (April 1) said that from 2022 The Q, the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, would no longer allow amateur companies to perform there. That, the email said, would include Queanbeyan Players and Free-Rain Theatre, and the Players would move back to the Bicentennial Hall.
Such a move by The Q appeared credible, given that a similar change in direction at The Street Theatre some years ago had seen amateur companies out in the cold.
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